Friday, April 22, 2011

TAOM: Kyle - Training Session

Inside a specific room in the Library Arcanium, the agent known as Kyle was training. After his battle with Deary Attrim Marie Nastasia Manson Alto Docker, he asked Adrian for a special training room. One of the main features of this room was its padding, dark padding covered the floor and all of the walls. The reason for this...

"Deadly Impact!" Kyle's fist struck a steel panel hanging from a chain safely away from a wall and basically turned it into a bowl. As it was swinging away, Kyle's body felt the force behind the blow recoil back and then he was sent flying backwards into a padded wall.

...is very obvious. Well, that's why he was training. He knew that he couldn't be hesitant with his innate abilities any longer if he was to avoid using his ultimate skill. That thought crossed his mind as he was pulling himself to a standing position. The Heaven and Earth, Worldly Secret Art, an ability that allowed his soul to exceed the limits of his body. However, this ability burned his candle of life at its brightest and that meant he was cutting into his lifespan with each use. Shaking his head, he gathered himself and leaped at a large punching bag.

"Titanic Blow!" Both of his fists slammed, only millimeters apart, into the bag, which proceeded to break off its support and land a few feet away. Just like the Deadly Impact, the force of the blow recoiled back and sent him flying back into a wall. With the recoil that much stronger because of it using both fists, it took him a bit longer to recover. Stumbling away from the wall, he took some breaths and steadied himself.

He was breathing heavily from the combined effort of his training and the drawbacks of his abilities. In-between breaths, he managed to say to the room itself, "Renew targets."

At once, hundreds of training targets of various kinds appeared out of nowhere or repaired themselves to pristine condition. Having recovered his breath enough, Kyle continued with his training. Visibly focusing energy into his left hand, he shoved it palm forward and shouted, "Aurora Grenade!"

A sphere of ever-shifting colors shot toward a group of straw dummies and blew them to bits upon contact with the first one. However, almost immediately after it left his hand, Kyle's left arm fell numbly to his side. Mostly ignoring it, he adjusted his stance a bit and then charged towards another target. He sprung into the air a bit and utilized a kicking ability with the cry of, "Blasting Quake!"

He landed with a stomp that literally exploded underneath his feet. This explosion knocked him off his feet and then sped toward the target he had been running at. Hitting said target caused an even bigger explosion that obliterated it. With a huff, Kyle struggled to his feet. This continued for several more minutes, in which time his arm regained function and several more explosions occurred.

"Compressed Bomber!" Leaping into the air, he gathered energy in-between his hands and slammed it into an area surrounded by dummies. It exploded, of course, and demolished the dummies and sent Kyle flying once again. Landing on his back, he took a breather to inspect his hurting arms after the attack. He held them up and saw that they were greatly singed. Slowly lowering them until they lay beside him, he took a moment to decide if he wanted to quit his training for now while they heal or heal them like he did his injuries received from Deary.

Deciding to try one more technique before calling it quits so he can recover, he ignored all of his pain as he pushed himself to standing. He held his arms out in front of him, side by side, and released one of his most powerful innate abilities.

"The.. END!"

Almost every member of the Society not out on a mission felt a massive shockwave shake the Library Arcanium. It disturbed them from whatever they had been doing at the time, but not enough to interfere with it, except for ones playing games that required near constant attention. Adrian rushed toward the epicenter of the shockwave, wondering what had caused such a quake in his Library. When he get close enough, he saw that the door to the training room had been blow clean off its hinges. He slowed down once he reached the "open" door and then went in.

The entire room had been demolished; holes leading to other parts of the Library were clearly evident. In the center of this destruction was Kyle, laying flat on his back and in obviously bad shape. Adrian decided that interrogations on the injured person could wait until he was actually awake. Picking Kyle up as best he could without aggravating the injuries, Adrian took him to the nearest medical room.

It was a few hours later when Kyle woke up. Well, technically he woke up. From the perspective of anyone who would be watching him, he might have been among the dead for how much he moved. Inside his mind, however, he was regaining access to his senses and one of the first things he felt, was pain. Instinctively flinching, he didn't realize where he was until he actually tried to move and found himself unable to. At that point, he noticed that; his hands and forearms were completely wrapped in something, something was covering his left eye, there was pressure on his torso not from a blanket, and his legs were immobilized by something.

He opened his right eye to see both his condition and the medical room he was laying in. Kyle just let himself lay there while taking stock of the situation. After a few moments of this, he let out a sigh and wondered if anyone would be visiting him. Apparently either waiting for some sign that he was awake or in response to his silent thought, Adrian and Tash stepped into his line of sight.

"Heh, so two of the leaders came to tell me off for being so stupid. I had thought that I was just going to get one of the other members coming in and telling me that the leaders were calling me an idiot. I'm truly honored," Kyle got out in a pained whisper.

"We'll get to that later. Right now, you should just be grateful that you don't have any permanent damage. Heck, you don't even have anything broken. You got incredibly lucky with that," Tash responded in a hard tone. Adrian tapped his foot in irritation as both of the leaders glared their disapproval at the injured guy.

"My record continues, huh? I have never had a broken bone, ever," Kyle coughed out. "Yeah, I'll consider myself lucky. With my injuries, it'll take a while to let them heal naturally."

"I was unconscious when you had gone off into the Street Fighter world, but some of the Society watching you on that mission told me that you had instantly healed yourself with an aura. Why don't you just do that now so you don't have to wait?" Adrian asked with the glare still in place.

Kyle looked away for a couple of moments before answering, "Because that's merely a byproduct of the Heaven and Earth, Worldly Secret Art."

Tash's gaze softened a bit while she spoke, "I was frantic when I saw that Sue do that stuff to you. I had been wondering if I could get anyone there quickly enough to stop her. Then you pulled that trick out of your arse and obliterated her. What is this Worldly Secret Art anyway?"

He took even longer to reply this time, "It's a release. The Heaven and Earth, Worldly Secret Art allows the limitless depths of the soul to exceed the bonds of a mortal body. This allows the user to burn their candle of life at its brightest."

Adrian went from disapproving scowl to a very disapproving scowl, "Wait a minute here. Burning a candle with a brighter flame accelerates the melting of its wax. If you apply that to a candle of life..."

"Exactly... The Heaven and Earth, Worldly Secret Art allows the user to perform almost godlike feats while their mortal lifespan gets shortened. Why do you think I was training so hard?" Kyle stated in a faintly sad voice.

"Is that also why you've always used weaponry before now? Because you didn't want to deal with the drawbacks of your skills?" Tash questioned accusingly.

Kyle coughed a few times and then replied, "Yeah, that's also true. I guess I wasn't ready to feel the weight of my power. You can go ahead and call me an idiot now."

The two leaders share a look at each other before Tash turned back to Kyle, "I said we'd get to that later. Right now, just rest."

With that, the leaders left the room quietly. Kyle let his gaze follow them until they were out of sight.

"I'm an idiot," Kyle murmured to himself. Coughing some more, he let his eye close and began willing himself to sleep.